Cyber Means Pilot

I was having a conversation with my wife about the Twilight Zone. Every year the Sci-Fi channel as a 24-hour marathon of most of the episodes. My wife was telling me about her favorite episode “The Changing of the Guard” and how it makes her cry everytime she sees it. During this talk, Paul F. Tompkins (PFT), the host of “Best Week Ever” and @twitterkins on Twitter was doing a running commentary on the episodes that were playing on Sci-Fi. I sent him a reply telling him my wife’s favorite episode and he replied back quickly asking me about the episode. I explain the plot and told my wife that I was telling Paul F. Tompkins about the episode. She asked me the $64 million question…

“How do you know its him?”

Hmm, that’s a fair question. I told her that there were contextual clues present in previous postings done by @twitterkins. For example, he was having a Twitter conversation with John Hodgman (@hodgman on Twitter). PFT presented himself as an authentic to Hodgman and Hodgman validated him as being PFT. Hodgman talked about his Twitter experience on “This Week in Tech.” Therefore, I had good idea that I was replying back to PFT. However, let’s say I had no real world methods of validating a person’s online identity. How would I validate that the person I was talking to was actually the person I was talking to?

If I had no real world contacts with the person, I guess the simplest way to validate the person’s identity would be to look for virtual artifacts that already have been validated as being created by the person and look for similarities between those artifacts and artifacts presented to me by whomever I am talking to.

I want to apologize for not posting in the past couple of weeks. It seems that my life as a retail superstar has interfered with my ability to act as any type of academic, let alone a public academic. So, I might as well attempt to write something before the end of the year. As my relatives are enjoying another college bowl game or a game of cards, I guess this would be as good a time as any to try to put together some thoughts on the year that was and what I see happening next year.

1. Microblogging will continue to evolve: One of the biggest stories of the past month has been the Denver plane crash and how one of the passengers Twittered during the crash. This lead to a series of headlines punning of either Twitter or crashes. I don’t believe Twitter will survive at the end of 2009 unless the Twitter crew can find some way to monetize the system. However, thanks to systems like the Laconica microblogging software and the Bootcamp initiative, there will be communities of microblogs connected by a superstructure of the universal profile supported by OpenID.

2. Cybereducation and cyberliteracy will begin to connect the levels of the American education system: With Margaret Spellings leaving and Arne Duncan becoming the Secretary of Education, I got to believe that there will be a long, hard look at (and possible elimination of) No Child Left Behind. I also believe that Duncan represents a future in cybereducation either in the form of more distance higher education to areas under-served by the current higher education/digital divide issues or through a reorganization of the primary/secondary/post-secondary education system in the United States.

3. There will continue to be questions in the binary levels of the Internet: Many of the academics that I listen to talk about binary issues, which are the differences between private life/public identity, online/offline, high-tech/lo-tech, public service/private utility and connected/unconnected. I realize as more of the issues emerge in the world of the Internet, there will continue to be a struggle to define our existence in this arena and what will be the methods used to help deal with the changes caused by the development in this environment.

4. This year was defined by the ability to connect with others, being able to clearly deliver a coherent thought and trying to persuade others with your message: I wish I could add more to this point. I’ll simply say that there have been a great deal of worldwide mediated platform that people could connect and express themselves in front of a worldwide audience. The channels of communication were use to clarify points that were left out for the media’s presentation of events (U.S. Presendental Election, Prop 8 Protests, Olympics, et al.)

Well, this should be the last post for this year. I wish you and yours a happy rest of the year. I gotta stop now, it’s my turn to play cards.

As a grad student, it is very common to have a ton of books spread out throughout three to six locations. I can never remember where they are and I always have a tough time organizing them. Therefore, when I heard about Library from Delicious Monster, it seemed that I could finally have some scene of control over the amount of information that I was forced to process. I even managed to buy a small portable barcode scanner to take with me to keep organized.

Delicious has revolutionized computer programming in general. Many of the new class of programmers represent the “Delicious Generation” with their approach towards coding, graphical design and user interaction controls. Users also now expect an easier time interact with their program and the computer as a whole. This leads to a deep point of Delicious representing a new cyber organizational structure.

It is at this point that it seems fair to mention that Delicious Library is only available for Mac users. While there are several clones available for PC, those clones lack the elements that makes Delicious Library a unique experience (the clones are not simple, multi-functional nor elegant). It would be fair to point out the Delicious Library represents the ethos of “Web 2.0″ and has good design standards that makes any program easy for the user to use.

It would seem that Delicious Library allows the user to have control of any asset present it his or her library regardless of their current location. There are already several services that allow the user to control digital assets from any location. But, Delicious Library (with the additional services from Amazon) allows a user to have access to any real world asset that is in their Delicious Library digital workflow storehouse and have it available in a digital, virtual environment. The real question that come from this is “can this be used to turn atoms into digital bits?”

It was hard for me to start writing this week. Suffering from a combination of writer’s block and a series of allergies made it really tough to put words on the screen. However, there came from the Internet a great amount of chatter that the writer’s block or sickness didn’t matter anymore.

The discussion among those focused on microblogging and all of its derivates was centered around two major selloffs. First, Powers of N was purchased by the Twitter group. Powers of N made a handy little program called “I Want Sandy,” which was a cloud computing reference system. The user could email the time of the meeting to those who needed to attend and cc the email to Sandy. Sandy would then translate the message of the email and format it to any calendar program. Sandy could also recall any information sent to her by the user. “I Want Sandy” and the rest of the cloud programs supported by Power of N will be turned off before the end of the month. Sandy was a very important example of the Internet being used as a “public memory” and it will be missed. The second bit of bad news came from Pownce as they were bought out by Six Apart. Pownce was microblogging service that incorporated the ability to post video and other mediated sources in a very fluid datastream. Pownce really never had the audience of Twitter and Pownce was lost in the shadow of Twitter and other social media service. Six Apart is also shutting down Pownce before the end of the year.

I guess that this leads to two points that I want to address. The first, shorter point is that the closing of Pownce makes it more important to use services such as ping.fm as a way a keeping the public discourse from dying if one of the microblogging/social media services decides to shut their doors. The second point to take from this how the economy is affecting the tech industry, and by extension the virtual economy of the Internet, in a more distinct way when compared to the dotcom bubble burst of the early part of the decade. As described by other tech writers, there were a great amount of turnover in the tech industry in the first half of the decade, which lead to a higher level of innovation and the rebirth of the “garage corporation.” Facebook, Twitter and other “Web 2.0” products were created during the downturn. It would seem that we are on the verge of the next “cottage industry” moment of the industry. However, the question that must be addressed before the tech sector can advance to “Web 3.0” is the impact of funding. That is, with the economy being affected across the board instead of merely the tech sector, where will funding come from that will help fuel innovation?

I just wanted to use this post to highlight some of the key points from the first day/day zero of the National Communication Assoication 94th Annual Convention in San Diego.

I had a talk with one of my friends and I found out something shocking. I’ve had a lot of computers. The majority of them have simply died on me (5 out of 9, what can I say? I’m hard on computers). However, another point that has come to light is that it was hard for me to become accustom to the form factor of many of the units I was using. I had an iPaq and found the unit was tough to use with a stylus. The Psion was also tough to use due to its monochromatic screen and the lighting, along with the design, made it tough to see the screen. I’ve always problems with computers that were smaller than a laptop. This year, I found two systems that worked for me.

The first system that I am referring to would just fall under the category of netbooks. They’re small, versatile and now are powerful enough to handle most of the applications that I require while on the road. The one that I’m using is the Acer Aspire One. I was impressed with the style of the unit and the flexibility of options it had. The toughest decisions when selecting which version I wanted was hard drive and operating system. I wanted to experiment with the Linux operating envirnoment, to play around with the configuration and try to build my operating system from the ground up. However, I decided on Windows XP because it was reliable and many of the programs that I needed would not be supported in the Linux environment. The second decision was the traditional laptop hard drive, instead of a SSD. It was quickly obvious that I need more than 16 gigabytes of hard drive space to be functional on the road. Therefore, the SSD system was eliminated. Netbooks, despite what Steve Jobs has claimed, will be a future of mobile computing. I now have the capability to take a computer, along with a spiral notebook and binder, in my messenger bag and allow those items to fit nicely. Also, the netbook systems are powerful enough to be a portable workstation on the road. The final selling point for me was that at the last conference I attended, there were at least 30 people using netbooks to type up the events at the conference. 

The second system that has been a wonderful addition to my workflow is the iPhone. The iPhone has already received numerous amounts of praise and adoration for the way it has redefined to the mobile phone. I believe it is a good starting point in the development of a mobile computing platform. However, there are still a few limitations that need to be addressed before it breaks the threshold of being considered a mobile computing system.

1.) The iPhone does not contain a mobile operating system. It can be argued successfully that the Windows CE was a relative failure in terms of developing a mobile computing culture (the OS was very buggy, the system did not allow for a fluidic transition between programs, it was relativity hard to write programs for, etc., etc.). However, the interface for Windows CE was more than a simple shell designed to host the icons of the programs. There was limited flexibility in the development of the home screen and there was also the ability to create themes in the structure of most of the phones that ran Windows CE. The iPhone OS is a simple shell with a lack of accessibility to the root structure of the system. Therefore, the iPhone is a shell that allows programs to be run, but it itself is not a computer.  

2.) The iPhone does not contain an open operating system. One of the key arguments against the iPhone is that the only way to introduce programs into the iPhone is through the iTunes Store. It seemed to limit the ecology of development by Apple. The argument made by Apple is that the filtering allows Apple to conduct simple QC on the programs, prevent viruses from being spread and insure that no problem has the ability to break the entire system. Another argument against the closed computing system set up by Apple was the control on most of the aspects of the program development. The Non-disclosure agreement (NDA) prevented all of the developers from discussing their projects, which in turn stunned the growth of knowledge with regards to programming on the iPhone. Many processes were overlapped as one developer could not easily ask other developers for help without breaking the NDA. This closed system of control and development would make the argument that the iPhone has a closed operating shell controlled by Apple.

3.) The iPhone lacks a level of transparency. A “chilling effect” in development is created when there is not a clear statement of expectations with regards to what is not allowed. Apple has created this chilling effect by disallowing two programs by giving the reason that is overlapped the functionally present in the iPhone. Also, the chilling effect is also created through the ability of killing a project that has been released. The hidden kill switch in the iPhone programming, which was later discovered, shows the lack of discussion between the developers and Apple.  

One of the challengers to the iPhone is Google’s Android system of phones. It seems that this is also a good start in the development of a mobile computing system. But, there does not seem to be the level of excitement regarding the Android system when compared to the iPhone. I believe that the mobile phone will cross the threshold into becoming mobile computers. I don’t believe we are there yet. 

I went back home after teaching on Monday. My wife looked angry. This is never a good sign. We had some small talk. Then, she asks me a question that shocked me…

“why are you listed as single on Facebook?”

Huh?!?

I rush to my laptop to check my status and sure enough I was listed as single. My birthday changed to January 1^st and I was no longer assign a sex. So, I was asexual? I know what my wife was thinking. In virtual cheating, one of the signs always listed is the non-relationship status on a social networking site. The only item I changed on my status was my political views and it seemed to reset all of the rest of my biographical data. In essence, I lost all of the signifiers that separate myself from other users on Facebook. Sure, I had my degrees and I had class (rank) listed. But, all of the other significant information was removed from my profile.

I spent five minutes retyping in the information and tried to assure my wife that it was a glitch in the system. Her birthday also changed to January 1^st, but she didn’t lose any other data on her profile. A single glitch can mean more than a lost of a string of data. It can also represent the temporary lost of identity in the virtual realm or serious trouble in the real world.

I’ve been using Ping.fm for almost a month and what I noticed that the service allows me to form my thoughts without worrying about how it may fit into the structure of most of the social networking sites. However, there has been a backlash against the use of such a “megaphone” application like Ping.fm. The argument has been broken down into two separate prongs, but represent essentially the same issues. The problems have been referred to issues of redundancy and issues of context.

These new modes of modular distributed conversation are design to deliver the same message across many social networking sites. The problem of redundancy comes into play when user A follows creator B across the different sites. B uses Ping.fm to streamline their workflow or create continuity throughout their various profiles/avatars. A is annoyed that the same information is present whenever A looks up B status on the multitude of the social networks that B belongs or receives B’s status updates via email. Ping.fm has a solution to cross redundancy built into the system. A user can create “triggers” when addressing different audiences. I have the capability natively in Ping.fm to note a status change or an addition to my microblog or even if I want to write to my full blog. In addition to the native triggers, I can add a hashtags (#) followed by a trigger word to send my message to a few of my social networking profiles. The creator of the information should use custom triggers to selectively distribute their message.

The second argument presented in the issue of redundancy relates to the use of social network aggregators, such as Socialthing! and Friendfeed. The solution is sort of a two-step process. First of all, it is important to understand the flexibility of a tool such as Twitter or Pownce. Many can chose do use such tools as a public discourse, others can use it as a open method of interpersonal communication, still others can use it as  virtual “public academic,” or it can be use personal method of broadcast. Socialthing! or Friendfeed can not determine how individual user are using the tools. Therefore, someone using a network aggregator may need to change their preferences of individual user based on how that individual user is using the tools. A majority of the user will simply use each tool as an independent network, without linking the different profiles. Just to be clear, the two-step process is recognizing how others use the distributed conversation tools and setting preferences accordingly on social network aggregators.

This discussion of the use of the tools leads to the second prong, the issue of context. The contextual argument fits in between the semantics of context (words have meaning and concrete importance) and nature of the medium (it is a cool, lean-forward, dynamic media). Towards this argument, I would twist and turn my previous solution and present a two step solution to the creator. The first point would be remembering that there is a fine line between active posting and spamming. In this spirit, I would encourage those active post to be aware of the audience they are serving. They need to make sure that the information they are sharing is relevant to the overall community. Typically, the community gives feedback in one form or another (mu’s, tweet’s, et al). The second point for the creators of information to consider, especially to those who use distributed conversation applications, is to effectively use the tools that you have available. Twitter, Pownce and other sites must be used in such a way that it does not break the intent of the site..

In summary, I wanted to defend those who use Ping.fm as a way of express ideas. This is not intended to attack anybody. It is merely an attempt to explain how services like Ping.fm can help facilitate a healthy exchange of information among users.  Now if you excuse me, I’ve got to tweet about this.

Many times I am forced to use a locked computer that has limited access online and zero ability to add software that I need for other projects. This is why I believe initiatives such as the opensource project, and more importantly, Portable Apps, will be a vital resource in the next couple of years. Portable Apps turns a thumb drive with at least 2 GB of storage space into a fully functional working environment in the form factor of a shell that appears on the right side of the taskbar in Windows. The shell includes an office suite, email program and a lite version of Firefox, which allows for more freedom when using cloud computing applications when compared to IE browser that is on many of the lockdown machines. The computer is not affected by Portable Apps and there should be no effect to the security or reliability of the workplace network. This is an amazing starting point and it looks like that organization is trying to create fully functioning operating systems that work solely from the thumb drive, no software is installed on the computer itself.  I hope that this work in the opensource realm will allow for the development of platform-neutral portability of works-in-process and will allow for the creator to not be limited to a single operating system or work environment.

It seems that Apple, Microsoft and Google are shying away from rigid, structured operating systems as the future of their respective companies. Apple and Microsoft have essentially spelled out that their next version of their OS (Snow Leopard and 7) would be the last traditional OS they would offer. Both companies seem to be choosing a cloud OS, which would reduce the companies’ material overhead cost and allow for a direct connection between the company and the user’s computer. Cloud computing seems to be the starting point for the future of computer-based interactions. The strength of the App Store on iTunes and the app stores for Google’s Android phone would represent a guidepost for those companies to follow. Those companies can now direct their energies to transitioning between the mobile platform and the laptop platform, which would lead to merger between the infrastructure created from the lessons learned on the mobile/laptop platform and the superstructure that is the traditional OS of the corporation (or in the case of Google, their search engine/browser/mobile platform convergence). This can lead to the concept of sky computing, or connecting several of the clouds of information through a “load-bearing” distribution system. Sky computing would reduce the load present on server farm and would allow from simpler method for backing up data.